Cuban-born novelist to give reading at ASU

Achy Obejas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist whose most recent book is “Ruins,” will give a free reading at 3 p.m., Feb. 16, in room 151 of Bateman Physical Sciences Center H Wing on ASU’s Tempe campus.

Following the reading, sponsored by the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, Obejas also will sign copies of her novel “Ruins.”

During her journalism career at the Chicago Tribune, she covered the Versace murder, the arrival of Al-Queda prisoners in Guantanamo, and Pope John Paul’s historic 1998 visit to Cuba.

Obejas also has received the Studs Terkel Journalism Prize, several Peter Lisagor journalism honors, two Lambda Literary awards, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry, and residencies at Yaddo, Ragdale and the Virginia Center for the Arts.

Her work has been translated into Spanish, German, Hungarian and Farsi. She has lectured and read her work in the United States, Cuba, Mexico, Spain and Australia.

Obejas, who was born in Havana, Cuba, is the author of three novels. Besides “Ruins,” they are “Days of Awe” and “Memory Mambo.”

She also has published a collection of short stories, “We Came All the Way From Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?“

Her poetry and fiction have been included in numerous literary publications, including “Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas,” “Indiana Review,” “Story,” “La Gaceta de Cuba” and “Habana Elegante,”

Obejas currently is the Sor Juana Visiting Writer at DePaul University in Chicago.

The event is co-sponsored by Barrett, the Honors College; Department of English, Department of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies; and the Hispanic Research Center.

For more information about the reading, contact the Piper Center for Creative Writing, (480) 965-6018, or www.asu.edu/piper.

Media Contacts:
Tom McDermott, thomas.m.mcdermott@asu.edu
(480) 727-0818

Judith Smith, jps@asu.edu
(480) 965-4821